hmc_site_source/content/english/about/index.md

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About Handmade Cities	About	about	About Handmade Cities	false	title title_class image side content_class bg_img grid button About Handmade Cities mb-20 text-center text-white center mt-16 mb-12 parallax img true /images/starry_night.png title content color content_class Sponsor-free tech events **100% indie.** We reject sponsorship because we must be allowed to criticize anyone’s software. Accepting “free” bags of money destroys our ability to change the software industry. #FC6D36 text-white title content color content_class An obligation to software quality The industry’s incentives erode ownership to extract rent from consumers. We’ve abandoned the love for our craft, the user's quality of experience, and their right to privacy. #A456EA text-white title content color content_class Self-host wherever possible Essential services for our conferences and meetups are processed in-house. For example, our servers personally generate your conference ticket—removing spying middlemen like Ticketmaster. #6B8EE8 text-white title content color content_class Direct funding approach We grow through obvious means, funded primarily through ticket sales, followed by independent donations and fixed-rate job booth rentals: straightforward, mom-and-pop transactions. #60E3C4 text-white enable label link icon class false Founder's Vision /founders-vision fa fa-ticket pl-2 btn text-white meetups-bg title title_class subtitle subtitle_class image section_class transition bg_color content_class content Abner Coimbre text-white -mt-2 Founder !text-[#F7CE3B] /images/people/abner_2024.png text-white start start_class start_style start_color start_dark start_dark_color /images/transition3.svg -scale-y-100 mask-size: cover;mask-position:center; black /images/transition3.svg black #060610 mt-4 [Abner](https://abner.page) is founder of Handmade Cities and the sole organizer for our conferences.<br><br>At a young age he was mentored by Kennedy Space Center on how they make software. After winning NASA’s Intern of the Year, Abner penned an essay on their programming philosophy: featured in the [news](https://observer.com/2017/07/a-look-into-nasa-coding-philosophy-kennedy-space-center-programming/). He was subsequently promoted to launch control engineer.<br><br>Abner started the [Handmade Network](https://handmade.network/), an online community learning to make quality software. He went on to work under Jonathan Blow for several years and finally Cyan Worlds to ship the [Myst remake](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255560/Myst/).<br><br>Now in his early thirties, Abner's mounting concern of declining software standards—both ethical and technical—pushed him to run conferences and grow meetups full-time. (He still loves [programming](https://terminal.click) though.) title title_class subtitle subtitle_class bg_color image image_class content_class section_class content Mr. Perkins text-white Secretary !text-[#F7CE3B] #060610 /images/people/perkins.png rounded-full !pt-16 !pb-32 text-white Mr. Perkins is Abner's year round part-time assistant, usually plowing through the backlog of texts, emails and invoices.